Review & Giveaway: 336 hours by Rachel Cathan

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Genre: ‘Based on the author’s true life experiences, 336 Hours is a humorous and poignant diary about one woman’s quest to be a mother.’

Release Date: 13th February 2017
Publisher: SilverWood Books

The next 336 hours will be tough. No, the next 336 hours will be really tough…

I feel like an Olympian, waiting to see whether the years of hard work, sacrifice and dedication are finally going to pay off, or whether my body is about to fail me at the last hurdle and make me wonder why I ever hoped I could win.

My best friend is pregnant, my single friends are planning their pregnancies and, after five long years of tests and investigations, I’m coming to the end of my third – and supposedly final – IVF treatment. There are 336 hours to survive before I’ll know if I get to join the motherhood club. That’s 224 waking hours of pure psychological torture. 112 sleeping hours to stare at the ceiling and wonder, what the hell am I going to do with my life if it turns out I can’t have kids?

Based on the author’s true life experiences, 336 Hours is a humorous and poignant diary about one woman’s quest to be a mother.

My thoughts

The author has written a story, her story, in a humoured way but with an everyday struggling subject for most women. There were moments where I laughed out loud, had tears in my eyes… as I was one of those ‘lucky ones’ to get pregnant without going through the IVF system. Howevee I was tols that was the only way to conceive for me due to medical reasons so I could relate in ways a lot to her writing.

All the assumptions are there too – you are married 5 years… where are our grandkids… people expect so much and expect people to go through the norm it is unreal.

Rachel has captured all her insecurities during the book really well and real but with a healthy dose of humour. I think this is a must read for any woman who is trying to break from the norm about kids or who are struggling to do so.

I can highly recommend this book and I will mention this to many of my friends as a must read.

Extract

I can’t pretend to have a clue what she means, of course. I don’t know what it’s like to have little people shouting, ‘Mummy! Mummy! MUUMMEEE!’ all day long, to never be able to go for a wee on your own, to make spaghetti bolognese and then watch your dinner dates tip it straight over their heads, to stay up all night comforting a teething toddler, to spend hours coercing and pleading with very small people to put shoes and coats on so you can at last leave the fucking house.

But I want to know this life. Because that stuff gives you stories, first-hand experiences, and the right to exchange knowing smiles of solidarity with other frazzled parents as you all manoeuvre your wayward shopping trolleys around the aisles of Tesco.

And it comes with other stuff, too: the good stuff.

BUY LINK

AMAZON UK – AMAZON US – Silverwood Books


ABOUT RACHEL CATHAN

 wp-image-88309157jpg.jpgRACHEL CATHAN is a writer from Bedfordshire. In 2001, a mutual friend introduced her to a part-time pub DJ in Southend-on-Sea. A month later, they had moved in together, around seven years later they tied the knot, and a little while after that – just like so many couples before them – they made the exciting and terrifying decision to start a family. And then, like a growing number of couples today, well…not a lot happened.

Throughout the subsequent years of fertility investigations and failed treatments, Rachel kept a diary of her experiences, and it’s from these first- hand encounters in the world of infertility and IVF that her first book, 336 Hours has been adapted.

Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads Author Page – Blog – Website

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Giveaway

Win 2 ebooks with a rafflecopter competition – click here

Promo Post + Giveaway: Paradise Prison by Faith Morti

Hello and welcome to an awesome promo post for Paradise Prison by Faith Mortimer. When I read about this book, I just knew I had to be part of the Promo tour – Let me know in the comments below what you think of this book. 🙂

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Genre: Psychological Thriller
Release Date:
7th January 2017
Series: Dark Minds #4
Publisher: Topsails Charter
Buy links: AMAZON UK – AMAZON US

Synopsis

Following an almighty row, Gillian stands up to her abusive boyfriend. The consequences are horrendous and far-reaching.

Terrified, she flees her home, seeking anonymity abroad while coming to terms with the outcome of her actions.

In Portugal, Gillian meets Harry, a yachtsman. Needing crew for his Atlantic Ocean-crossing she applies for the job. Half-way into the journey, after confessing to her crime, Harry offers her refuge on an uninhabited island in the Caribbean which he says he owns.

Confused and depressed, Gillian imagines this is the answer to her problems. She needs time to lie low and consider her options; confront the authorities or live in obscurity? Harry is offering the perfect hiding place…or is he?

When things start going horribly wrong, she asks herself if she is alone on the island. But maybe the biggest question of all is why she gets the gut feeling Harry wants to keep her there at all costs?What happens when she says … no.

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About the Author

faithbook2Faith is a British author dividing her time between Hampshire, England & Cyprus. Since 2005 she turned her hobby of writing into a career. During childhood, she dreamed of writing novels which readers would love, & spent many hours writing short stories which she read to her sisters. Born in Manchester & educated in Singapore, Malaya & Hampshire, England. Amazon Top #14 author rank for mystery, #27 mystery, thriller & suspense, #55 literature & fiction #5 bestselling author on Nook Books. Faith’s books have made the Kindle Top 100 Paid List numerous times.

Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads Author Page – Google+ – Website

 

Giveaway

1st Prize – Ecopies of all 4 books in the series
2nd Prize – an ecopy of the book

A Rafflecopter Giveaway

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Promo Post & Giveaway- New Blood by Lorna Peel

New Blood by Lorna Peel

new-blood-coverGenre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: 3 November 2016
Publisher: Crooked Cat Publishing
Buy Links: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Universal Amazon Link – Smashwords – Netgalley
Suitable for 18+

Synopsis

Sophia Nelson returns to her hometown in Yorkshire, England to begin a new job as tour guide at Heaton Abbey House. There, she meets the reclusive Thomas, Baron Heaton, a lonely workaholic.

Despite having a rule never to become involved with her boss, Sophia can’t deny how she finds him incredibly attractive.

When she overhears the secret surrounding his parentage, she is torn. But is it the attraction or the fear of opening a Pandora’s box that makes her keep quiet about it?

How long can she stay at the abbey knowing what she does?

Please read further for an Extract, About the author and the awesome Giveaway!

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Review & Giveaway – A Little Sugar, A Lot of Love by Linn B. Halton

alsalolPublisher: Choc Lit
Publication Date Kindle: 15 January 2016
Publication Date Paperback: 14 October 2016
Genre: Chick Lit
Links:  Amazon UK EbookAmazon UK PaperbackAmazon US EbookAmazon US Paperback
Source: I have received this ebook in exchange for an honest review by Brook Cottage Books.


Synopsis

Life isn’t all love and cupcakes …

Katie has had her fair share of bad luck, but when she finally realises her dream of opening a bakery it seems things can only get better.

But the reality of running a business hits Katie hard and whilst her partner, Steve, tries to help she begins to sense that the situation is driving them further apart. Could Katie be set to lose her relationship and her dream job?

Then, one winter’s day, a man walks into her shop and, in the space of that moment, the course of Katies life is changed.

But nobody finds happiness in the blink of an eye. Sometimes it takes two Christmases, three birthdays and a whole lot of cake to get there …

Previously released as Sweet Occasions by the author. Revised and edited by Choc Lit December 2015.

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My Thoughts

This was a nice and easy reading book for me – I haven’t read for a while now having a bubba and this was the perfect book to start reading again. I loved the different points of views of the different main characters you read about.

I really liked Katie, she showed how you can end up in a rut. Unwillingly or unknowingly on how you got there and it can sometimes feel like you are trapped in this situation and you can’t find yourself getting out of it. Of course her partner has just been through cancer, so you put your whole life on hold for this person and that is how Katie came across and that is true. Her one and true love is the bakery she has got. But her partner Steve doesn’t agree with how it is run. It is lovely and sad to read at the same time how Katie’s cute and lovely bakery turned into a highstreet name, which is ok but you could tell she was sad about losing the initial charm.

of course then one day a random stranger stood in front of her closed door. And Katie being Katie she invited him in after opening hours as he was drenched. Adam is a lovely character who has got a cute daughter Lily. His partner and he have split up and Adam divides his time between work and Lily and he was then visiting his nan. Who I absolutely adore!

I don’t want to give away too much – but this is definitely a lovely book to just sit on a rainy day on the sofa with a hot cocoa and reading about your friends.

I can highly recommend this book and I will be following this author in the future.

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About the Author

lbh-author-photo“I’m a hopeless romantic, self-confessed chocaholic, and lover of coffee. For me, life is about family, friends, and writing. Oh, and the occasional glass of White Grenache…”

An Amazon UK Top 100 best-selling author with A Cottage in the Country in November 2015, Linn’s novels have been short-listed in the UK’s Festival of Romance and the eFestival of Words Book Awards. Linn won the 2013 UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction award. Linn writes chick lit, women’s contemporary fiction and psychic romance for Choc Lit, Harper Impulse and Endeavour Press.

 

Website/blog: http://linnbhalton.co.uk/
Twitter: 
@LinnBHalton FB: Linn B Halton Author
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/LittleSugarLotOfLove

Giveaway

Enter the Giveaway below!
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4be03017198/?

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Promo Post: Cradled Dreams by Beverly Hoffman

Cradled Dreams

By Beverly Hoffman

Cradled Dreams

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Release Date: April 2013

Publisher: Abbott Press

As her family gathers for Thanksgiving, Georgie’s heartbreak is hard to conceal. After years of pursuing her dreams of motherhood, she has recently learned that her last option to conceive has failed. Grim amid the festive holiday celebrations, Georgie feels that she has little reason to give thanks.

Her sister-in-law, Robin, desperate to ease Georgie’s suffering, struggles for a way to help. On loving impulse, she offers a solution-surrogacy.

Flush with excitement, neither woman can predict how her life will change. But each is comforted by the knowledge that her love for the other will guide the way. Soon, after in vitro using a relative’s sperm and her own egg, Robin shares the joyous news that she is pregnant. Every conversation sparkles with her private joy at the gift she could give her sister-in-law. But she encounters unexpected criticism when discussing the plan with others. She must now deal with judgment and questions about ethics. Relationships are strained. Both must pay emotional costs they never anticipated. Soon, questions they never asked begin to haunt them both.

Where do boundaries of possibility meet long-term responsibility? Under what circumstances does science need to pause to consider moral outcomes? When organs and tiny bones grow in spite of circumstances never seen in nature, where does motherhood begin and end?

And most haunting of all is the question Robin couldn’t ask herself on that first day: Will she really be able to give up the child for the sake of Georgie’s dream?

Buy links

Amazon.com

Amazon UK

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About the Author

Beverly's Book PhotoBeverly Hoffman spent her childhood in Texas eating barbeque and drinking Big Reds. After college, she and her husband, Marty, moved to Panama, where she taught English for twenty-six years. Beverly loved to push her students to realize their full potential. She was able to help her students by taking huge assignments apart and helping them accomplish discrete pieces and then put all of them together into a finished project.

While in Panama, Beverly explored the country. She rode her bike 57 miles in one day from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, paddled the Panama Canal twice, and participated in Green Hell, an obstacle course, which included rappelling out of a 30 foot building.
Beverly and her husband later retired to Sequim, Washington, where they enjoy the bounty of fresh Dungeness crab, Washington wines, and family.
Beverly has a Masters degree in English and has been in a writing group for over six years. Beverly loves writing and hopes that through her books, she can get people to explore new concepts. Join Beverly on Facebook for giveaways, scenic photos, and more information about her books at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBeverlyHoffman.

Giveaway

Copy of the book!

A paperback copy of the book (U.S only)

Ecopy of the book (outside U.S)

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4be0301791/

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